Why money should be so precious to an Ass too dull and mean to exchange it for any other satisfaction, is strange; but there is no animal so sure to get laden with it, as the Ass who sees nothing written on the face of the earth and sky but the three letters L. S. D.—not Luxury, Sensuality, Dissoluteness, which they often stand for, but the three dry letters. Your concentrated Fox is seldom comparable to your concentrated Ass in money-breeding.Being rather ignorant, and in something of a hurry to finish the chapter, I underlined L. S. D. in the book and scribbled the helpful gloss "Groovy!" in the margin. Then I promptly forgot about the passage.
The next day, an anonymous essay entitled "Stockbroking and the Stock Exchange" (Fraser's, 1876) offered me the following line: "Within little more than a century our national debt grew from 25,000,000l. or 30,000,000l. to nearly 900,000,000l., all told;…" The abbreviation l. puzzled me; I assumed that it must stand in for "pounds sterling," but had no other information. Fortunately, the OED conveniently resides on the Web, and it confirmed my guess about pounds sterling (from L. libra, duh); but it also provided me with a nearby hyperlink to "L.S.D.," which I was surprised to see. The result of following the link was, "abbreviation for 'pounds, shillings, and pence' (see the letters L, S, D); hence often used = 'money'. Hence L. S. Deism (humorous), worship of money." Okay.
On to Wikipedia, where "the letters L, S, D" are resolved into librae, solidi, denarii after the various types of Roman specie—good. But then a further note:
The Bonzo Dog Band did a cover of the 1931 song, "Ali Baba's Camel" [music and lyrics, Noel Gay], on their 1969 LP, Tadpoles. The lyrics begin, "You've heard of Ali Baba, forty thieves had he. Out for what we all want, lots of L.S.D."Hee. Here's a link to the Bonzo* version. I think when they say "L.S.D." it might mean something different from what Gay had in mind.…
* I'm a sort of intermittent fan of Neil Innes, and am always delighted when something reminds me of him. My favorite song of his is "When Does a Dream Begin," video here.
